In many conventional computer systems, data objects are often stored in a database. The stored data objects may include, for example, data tables. The data tables, in turn, can include information such as employee records, customer information, product inventory records, or countless other types of information. In the example of a data table, the information is typically arranged in columns and rows. For example, an employee record data table might contain a column for the last name of the employee, another column for the first name of an employee, and yet another column for the employee's job title. A separate row of the data table would be used for each employee. When access to information stored in the data table is desired, computer code (e.g. an instruction or set of instructions) is executed to access the desired information. Specifically, the computer code is designed to access the information stored in the data table of the database.
Although such a data accessing method is generally functional, conditions arise which render the method inoperative. More specifically, it is well known that it often becomes necessary to alter or change the architecture of the database. That is, it often becomes necessary to alter or change the format in which information is stored. For example, in the employee record example listed above, it may become necessary to add another column to the data table. The added column might indicate the social security number of the employee. Thus, the format of the information is changed from a three column data table to a four column data table. It will be understood that numerous other types of database format changes may be necessary or desired. Although such a format change seems minor, the existing code was originally designed to access the information stored in the old format. That is, the existing code was designed to access a three column data table, not a four column data table.
In the prior art, in order to accommodate the altered database architecture, the existing code would have to be analyzed and portions of it rewritten. In some instances, as many as tens of millions of lines of existing code would have to be analyzed and some portion thereof rewritten. Analyzing and rewriting the voluminous existing code is a monumental task requiring numerous and costly man-hours or even man-years.
With reference next to Prior Art FIG. 1, a schematic diagram of a prior art database access model is shown. Prior Art FIG. 1 includes an altered database architecture 100, existing code 102, and database interface code 104. In a prior art attempt to solve the problems associated with accessing altered database architecture 100, system users or programmers have created or modified existing database interface code 104. In such an embodiment, existing code 102 does not directly access altered database architecture 100. Instead, existing code 102 first accesses database interface code 104. Database interface code 104 then accesses altered database architecture 100. In prior art approaches, when database architecture 100 is changed, database interface code 104 may need to be changed to accommodate the new database architecture, existing code 102 may need to be changed, or both database interface code 104 and existing code 102 may need to be changed to accommodate the new database architecture. Furthermore, if database interface code 104 does not already exist, new database interface code must be created. Thus, the above-described prior art approach may require the modification or creation of database interface code before existing code can access an altered database architecture.
Thus, a need exists for a system and method which can readily access an altered database architecture using existing code. A further need exists for a system and method which does not require the creation or modification of database interface code to access an altered database architecture. Yet another need exists for a system and method which solves the above described needs without requiring analysis of existing code, without requiring modification of existing code, and without creating new code.